Chapter 993: The First Gateway (3)
“All-directional emission spellcraft. 39-layer composite deployment.”
Whirrrrrr!!
Dozens of Spiked Orbs rose above Gateway City, emitting brilliant light.
“Sequential detonation with a 2-second incantation delay. Eight-directional chain reaction.”
Bloodshot eyes appeared between the Spiked Orbs, glaring at each other before simultaneously exploding.
Acrid purple flames erupted endlessly onto the streets of Gateway City.
CRUUUUMBLE!!
Amidst the acrid conflagration, a pure white cross surged upward, splitting the Spiked Orbs apart.
“Provisional Sanctuary, 270-degree right turn. Descend 5 meters in place, shattering 13 spell tools.”
As the cross spun in place, sweeping away the inferno, the shattered Spiked Orbs scattered countless sharp thorn fragments onto the ground.
Shwaaa-shhhhak!!!
The thorn fragments poured onto the street, piercing and embedding themselves into the facilities of the bustling district, yet there were almost no casualties.
Most residents had already completed their evacuation from the combat zone, as if accustomed to such disturbances.
Among them, some superhumans even began fighting each other, using the chaos of the battle as a cover.
“I expected it, but most of Gateway City’s residents are quite high-level superhumans.”
Lennok, observing the outer streets of the chaotic Gateway City, spoke.
“I doubt this city’s population exceeds a million. Surely, not every resident is a magic user, are they?”
“……”
Angel, who had been standing behind him, stood dumbfounded, unable to speak.
All the spell information Lennok had just casually spouted.
Hints about which spell, in which direction, with how many layers, and how far it would deploy.
All those explanations had been flowing from Lennok’s mouth moments before the engagement began.
How could such a thing be possible, unless he possessed precognitive abilities, seeing straight through the battle between the Gravekeepers and the Cross Society?
Lennok glanced over at Angel’s silent reaction.
“No answer. Do you intend to keep watching like this?”
“…I’m sorry, but I think that’s my line.”
Angel, belatedly regaining his composure, fiddled with his terminal and retorted.
“I should have reported this to my superiors much earlier, but you’re making me late. And my name is Angel.”
“That black magic. The spell triggers upon eye contact.”
Lennok completely ignored Angel’s words and raised the Eye of the Wellspring.
Enlarging the lens as if using the artifact as a small telescope, Lennok spoke with interest.
“Not only the spellcaster, but even consumable magic tools like the Spiked Orbs are individually imbued with triggers and used.”
“It’s nothing new for the Gravekeepers’ black magic to be peculiar, is it?”
“Conversely, what the clerics from the Cross Society are using isn’t spellcraft. That’s a prayer.”
“……”
“It’s a primitive faith where they recite prayers based on belief, receiving power and a sanctuary.”
Even at this moment, Lennok gazed with a somber expression at the cross of light fiercely spinning in the middle of the street.
“The Eyes of Blue also had Watchers who wielded similar power to that.”
“You…”
Angel, who had been about to say something, sighed and stood up.
Putting the terminal back into his pocket, he crouched beside Lennok and nodded.
“Look, I’m not entirely ignorant of your situation. You left the Eyes of Blue recently, didn’t you?”
“……”
“I heard many things happened. But this isn’t the time to indulge in sentimentality.”
Angel looked around, as if still being chased by someone, even at this moment.
“It’s difficult in such an open area. Can’t we move somewhere else first?”
“Difficult, you say.”
Lennok chuckled.
“Is that because you provoked and triggered this fight?”
“…That’s…”
Leaving the speechless Angel, Lennok turned his gaze.
“If you pulled strings to extract me, it must have been to provoke a large enough engagement to divert the Gateway Search Party’s attention.”
“……”
Whirrrrrr…!!
A floating Spiked Orb appeared above Lennok’s head.
A bloodshot eye, protruding from between the orb’s thorns, glared at Angel, who stood behind Lennok.
Lennok looked at it and spoke leisurely.
“In that process, it must have been unavoidable to attract the attention of both the Gravekeepers and the Cross Society.”
“…Wait, so you knew all this and were just standing here?”
[There you are, you rat.]
At the same time, a chilling voice resonated from the Spiked Orb.
The grim-faced man, who had been fighting the Cross Society, turned his head and glared at Angel.
[To betray our existence to hypocrites like the Cross Society, abandon any thought of returning alive.]
KWAH-AAANG!!
With that, the Spiked Orb hovering above them swelled and exploded.
More than a dozen thorns erupted and rained down onto the sturdy city wall.
“Woah!!”
Angel gasped, flustered, then rapidly exhaled breath at his feet.
He froze the wall, creating a sheet of ice, and slid along the icy path, clutching Lennok’s nape.
Thwip!!
Lennok frowned at the urgent gesture but allowed himself to be pulled along.
The moment Angel, grabbing Lennok’s collar, accelerated along the icy path and barely escaped the epicenter of the explosion.
Another Spiked Orb erupted right beside them, instantly devastating the outer street area.
KWAH-AAANG!!
A storm of wooden debris scattered in all directions as buildings crumpled.
Angel sprayed cold air onto the wooden fragments, fusing them together, and instantly created an icy path leading out of the street.
Angel, sliding out of the street, crashed face-first into the dirt.
Thud!!
He flinched, trembled, then immediately sprang to his feet, frantically looking around and shouting.
“Whoa?! W-where are you?!”
“You can’t even plan a simple escape route properly.”
Thump!!
Lennok emerged from the collapsed warehouse debris right beside him and asked.
“You wield ice abilities, yet you can’t even properly control the friction coefficient of an icy path?”
“No, I’m not a wizard, so… such delicate control is a bit…”
Angel scratched his head, looking embarrassed.
“You can’t demand such precise control, quantifiable in numbers, from a superhuman. Not everyone in the world is like you.”
“……”
“Ah, this is no time for this. Let’s hurry and escape!!”
Angel, jolting back to his senses, quickly ran towards the alley behind the bustling district, nodding at Lennok.
“Let me reintroduce myself. I am Angel of the Cartel. It should have been like this from the start!!”
A cryokinetic superhuman from the Ability Awakening Warband. An associate who had arrived at the Gateway before Lennok.
An executive from the Cartel, dispatched to the scene to assist Evan Martinez with this operation.
“I’ve been so worried since you lost contact after entering the Central Front. Ugh, what would the Chairman say if I failed?”
Angel exaggeratedly swept his hand across his chest, then looked back and grinned.
“Anyway, you made it to the Gateway. It’s the first time since our fight at the dam, isn’t it good to see you again?”
“Enough with the nonsense.”
But Lennok sharply cut off Angel’s smooth greeting.
Lennok glanced at Angel’s head, who was speeding through the main street on an icy path, and spoke.
“They’re coming.”
“You were here…!!!”
A dazzling pillar of crosses slammed into the middle of the street, instantly obliterating the surrounding facilities.
KWAH-AAANG!!
The impact crushed and swept away buildings and pavement in all directions like straw, turning the surroundings into a wasteland.
“So you were the one who reported the Gravekeepers to the main Cross Society?”
From atop a giant cross, a middle-aged cleric in priestly robes looked down at Angel with a solemn expression.
“Thank you for your courage, but you must come with me. Can you spare some time immediately?”
“Ha, haha…”
Angel broke into a cold sweat and stepped back slightly.
RUMBLE!!!
Seeing a greatly swollen Spiked Orb rolling from behind the main street, Angel spoke urgently.
“Look, shouldn’t we deal with the Gravekeeper’s black wizard first?”
“The resistance is fierce; I find it difficult to act alone. I don’t think we can fight further inside the city.”
The cleric shook his head, his face devoid of expression.
“A fight within Gateway City must be justified to the Order Alliance. You must prove with your own words that the Cross Society is not responsible.”
“If the Cross Society isn’t responsible, then who is responsible for this…?”
“Why do you keep spouting nonsense when you should know better?”
The cleric’s eyes, fixed on Angel, gleamed coldly.
“Naturally, the informant — you — must bear the responsibility.”
Koo-goo-goo!!!
The giant cross dug into the ground and spun, and the Spiked Orb, filling the alley, pressed forward.
The clash of different abilities from the Cross Society and the Gravekeepers converged on the spot where Angel and Lennok stood.
Angel, with a tearful expression, pulled a small vial from his pocket and brought it to his lips, shouting.
“Ah, seriously!! If only we hadn’t wasted so much time…!!”
“Stop.”
Lennok, stopping Angel just as he was about to gulp down the vial, stepped forward.
“…Evan?”
“Evan Martinez. Are you the rumored pyromancer?”
The Cross Society cleric, perched on the cross, eyed Lennok, his gaze sharpening.
“I’ve heard about what you did in Vulcan so often my ears are ringing.”
“……”
“I don’t know why you’re associating with such a lowly ability user, but if you’ve shown loyalty to an organization, you should understand faithfulness and responsibility.”
The cleric pointed at Angel, his expression solemn.
“If you hand over that ability user, out of respect for you, the Cross Society will not hold you responsible any further.”
[…Cheonbeon Evan Martinez.]
Rumble!!
The grim-faced man, emerging from between the thorny vines, tilted his head as he looked at Lennok.
[I heard the Nether King sometimes concerns himself with your whereabouts.]
“……”
[Hand over the superhuman. Then I will grant you a place in our main sect and the opportunity to greet the Nether King.]
“My name is being called from all over today.”
Lennok wryly smiled and turned his gaze.
The very fact that both the Cross Society and the Gravekeepers were showing him goodwill and trying to persuade him felt strange.
Even though as Cheonbeon I never truly differentiated myself from Adamant Thunder, the reputation and reactions surrounding Evan Martinez were remarkably different.
Instead of being treated like a bloodthirsty madman, he was regarded as a high-ranking wizard with whom one could reason.
This was likely because Lennok’s reputation and rumors were not created by his own will, but rather he had utilized an already established reputation.
But precisely because of that, there was only one answer fitting for Evan’s identity in this situation.
“If you’ve heard about what happened in Vulcan, you should know.”
Lennok raised his hand, gathering mana, and spoke.
“I’m not one to abandon those who have helped me.”
“Martinez…!!!”
[Blasting Flame Sphere]
[Crimson Emission]
Whoooosh!!
A ball of fire shot by Lennok exploded, instantly spreading intense magical waves across the sky.
At that moment, a creaking and twisting noise echoed from beyond the heavens.
The complexions of both the Gravekeeper and the cleric changed simultaneously, and a vast haze greatly shimmered above Gateway City.
Paah-aah-aah!!
As a strange wave swept the ground, following the flow of the haze that wrinkled the sky, the cleric’s cross and the Gravekeeper’s Spiked Orb simultaneously crumbled as if exploding.
CRACKLE!!
THWOOM!!
The recoil of their spellcraft being forcibly canceled. The faces of the cleric and the Gravekeeper distorted in pain.
“Keugh…!!”
[How dare you…!!]
Both of them staggered, unable to withstand the recoil.
Lennok immediately nodded at Angel.
“Start.”
“…I don’t quite get it, but here I go!”
Angel unhesitatingly chugged the vial.
He held the liquid in his mouth without swallowing, then spat it out, causing the medicine to freeze and explosively amplify.
It transformed into a colossal ice tree, lifting Lennok and Angel into the air above the street.
CRACKLE!!!
Lennok, clinging to the explosively rising branches of the ice tree, escaped behind the bustling district and jumped down, following Angel.
Angel, creating an icy path and leaping into the alley, asked.
“How did you think of such a countermeasure in that situation?”
“Throughout the engagement, both sides refrained from using large-scale spellcraft.”
Lennok, stepping onto the icy path behind Angel, said.
“They’re Level 7 spellcasters, yet there wasn’t even a bluff about using their Domains. In fact, they only reduced their output as time went on.”
“……”
“At first, I thought it was to avoid attracting the attention of the Conjunction Spell Master, but in reality, it was because of The Veil draped over the city.”
Gwoooooong…!!!
The sky gradually darkened, and The Veil draped above it slowly became clearer.
Like an aurora draped across the night sky, a magnificent spectacle of a giant curtain rippling and echoing.
And with each ripple, the mana around Gateway City fluctuated ceaselessly.
“If The Veil strengthens and becomes clearer at night, it’s natural for the internal environment of Gateway City, located at its border, to undergo drastic changes.”
Lennok’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the rippling aurora, stretching across tens of kilometers of sky.
“Using high-output spellcraft would naturally result in equally strong recoil.”
As day turned to night, The Veil’s power strengthened, and the mana conditions of the city at its border drastically changed.
In that process, if spellcraft with output high enough to draw in surrounding mana was used, recoil would forcibly occur, canceling the spellcraft.
Lennok, having discerned that the Cross Society and the Gravekeepers were wary of this, indiscriminately used high-firepower magic to forcibly cancel all their spellcraft.
“If mana usage is restricted during the night, it actually makes things easier for us.”
Lennok muttered, glancing back.
“Should I have engaged the spellcasters there a bit longer?”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Angel, who had been silently fleeing, jumped up with a bewildered expression.
“The Order Alliance has taken control of the Gateway, you know. Don’t you understand there’s no need to provoke them?”
“The connection between the Conjunction Spell Master and the Order Alliance within this Gateway currently is extremely weak.”
Lennok’s eyes turned cold.
“For some reason, the objectives of the Conjunction Spell Master and the Alliance’s spellcasters don’t seem to align.”
“Oh?”
Angel, diligently running through the secluded alley, glanced back at Lennok and spoke.
“You haven’t even been in Gateway City for a full day yet, and you already know that much?”
“Knowing or not, from the beginning—”
Lennok’s annoyed reply suddenly stopped.
Lennok’s cold gaze instantly shifted to Angel’s face.
“…You know what happened to me outside.”
“……”
Angel had almost precisely grasped the time Lennok arrived in Gateway City.
That could only be possible if he had been receiving updates on Lennok’s movements from outside the Gateway from the start.
Moreover, knowing that there was no coordination between the Conjunction Spell Master and the Alliance within the Gateway—
[Ignite]
[Blazing Hand Manifestation]
KWAH-AAANG!!
Flames wrapped around Lennok’s fingertips, transforming into a giant hand of fire that instantly crushed Angel.
“Guh-hak…!!”
“I see. No wonder I felt like I was explaining The Veil by myself.”
Lennok looked down at Angel, who was coughing with difficulty, and asked.
“Were you testing me from the start?”
“……”
Angel already knew that the environment of Gateway City, located at The Veil’s border, drastically changed based on day and night.
And that excessive mana usage was prohibited during that process.
That’s why he hadn’t responded at all while Lennok was explaining those facts.
From the very beginning, from the clash between the Cross Society and the Gravekeepers, to Lennok’s handling of the chaos and escape.
From the moment Angel met Lennok until now, he had been trying to verify him.
“What are you hiding?”
“Cough, I wasn’t hiding anything…!!”
Angel, crushed beneath the hand of fire, managed a trembling smile.
“I was… confirming.”
“Confirming?”
“To know if you are still the same person who fought against Van back then. I needed to know.”
Angel gasped quickly and spoke rapidly.
“The Conjunction Spell Master… is a monster.”
“……”
“If we make even one mistake in this operation, both you and I will be dragged to the operating table alive.”
Suddenly, a faint light gleamed in Angel’s eyes.
“If you still retain the same skill and will as when you set Vulcan ablaze… then we can make our move.”
“…Make your move, you say. How absurd.”
Lennok pressed Angel’s body even harder with the hand of fire and asked.
“There’s a limit to your nonsense. You were testing me because you were worried I might have changed since then?”
“……”
“I don’t even know why you’d worry about something like that, but trying to confirm it here is ridiculous.”
Lennok’s gaze turned cold as he looked at Angel.
“Do you think you can judge a person with just a few words?”
“But you left the Eyes of Blue, didn’t you?”
“…What?”
“The reason you were able to turn Vulcan into an inferno back then was because the well-being of the Lighthouse Keeper, whom you cherished so dearly, was at stake.”
Angel watched Lennok intently, who was momentarily speechless, and continued.
“A spellcaster’s power is a complex concept, affected by all sorts of situations including environment and emotions… Back then, you were clearly burning the present without any thought for the future.”
“……”
“After the ‘binding’ that allowed you to unleash your power with the resolve to burn everything ended, and you left the Eyes of Blue, it’s uncertain if you can still display the same level of power.”
“You…”
Was he thinking that the power Cheonbeon unleashed back then was a Geas to save the Lighthouse Keeper, and was he worried that Lennok might not be able to exert the same power now?
A topic that only a superhuman, whose abilities are based on pure mental power, would notice.
And it was a remarkably sharp observation, to Lennok’s surprise.
Lennok glared at Angel’s momentarily gaunt face and asked.
“Is that a deduction only possible because you’re a superhuman?”
“Perhaps?”
Angel smiled wryly.
“At the very least, I’m deeply aware of the dangers of Geas more than others.”
“……”
Lennok silently watched Angel, then slowly retracted the hand of fire.
Lennok looked at Angel, who laboriously pushed himself upright, and asked.
“So, what’s the conclusion?”
“It seems you’ll be fine. At least, you look much better than I expected.”
Angel brushed off his clothes and replied.
“If you defeated Lieutenant General Roberaid, your power goes without saying, and your judgment doesn’t seem bad either. At least, you don’t feel rusty.”
“……”
“As the Chairman said, I will fully cooperate with you in this operation.”
He already knew that Lennok had engaged and defeated Roberaid?
Though different from Angel’s usual demeanor, Lennok understood why the situation was unfolding this way.
Before being a Cartel executive, Angel was an ability user who had been active in the Central Front for a long time.
It wouldn’t be strange if he was reviving his instincts from his days in the Warband while waiting in Gateway City.
Most importantly, if there was an external factor that made Angel act this way—
“Who is supplying you with information inside this Gateway City right now?”
“Before I answer that question, I think I need to confirm how much you remember about past events.”
Angel slowly brushed off his clothes, stood up, and asked with a grin.
“Do you remember the Level 8 superhuman you met in Jindun’s Hanghasa Labyrinth?”
“…A Level 8 superhuman, don’t tell me.”
Lennok’s expression subtly changed as he instantly understood Angel’s words.
The Level 8 superhuman who wielded gravity, whom he met in the labyrinth under his Evan identity.
Lennok remembered his monstrous power and output very well.
“Is Ballak O’Edon here?”
“This way, Evan-nim.”
Angel bowed his head slightly and led the way.
“The Ability Awakening Warband is waiting.”
“……”
Ability Awakening Warband.
One of the colossal factions currently occupying a corner of the Central Front, and an alliance of ability users formed solely from innate ability users.
Angel had already contacted them in Gateway City and gathered the necessary information.